A variety of scoring devices have been devised for use in maintaining a record of the game points, game and/or set score in a tennis match.
These scoring apparatus have included small hand held devices such as that disclosed, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,132,187 to Moebius; U.S. Pat. No. 4,357,895 to Nightingale and U.S. Pat. No. 4,189,143 to Van Auken et al. Tennis scoring devices have also been incorporated into articles of apparel such as a wristband disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,164,910 to Feiler; 4,158,342 to Scruggs and 4,557,215 to Petersson. Tennis scoring devices have also been incorporated into items such as a wrist watch as in U.S Pat. No. 4,331,098 and Swiss Pat. No. 607,749 issued Oct. 31, 1978.
Tennis scoring devices have been incorporated into tennis racquets themselves as in U.S. Pat. No. 4,331,098 to Rubano; European Patent Application No. 024552 published July 24, 1980, U.S. Pat. No. 4,189,143 to Van Auken et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,202,544 to Popma; U.S. Pat. No. 4,498,668 to Bowen and French Pat. No. 2,460,689 filed Mar. 30, 1979. Electronic tennis score keepers have also ben developed such those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,237,372 to Zev Golis et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 4,491,954 to Genuit.
More traditional tennis score keeping banners on which various players names are placed onto the banner and the tennis score is recorded by numbers which are either flipped over or marked on the tennis score keeper is shown is U.S. Pat. No. 3,220,127 to Wilson. This apparatus is typically attached to or integral with a netting post and projects vertically upward in the form of a "T". Additional traditional scoring banners are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,515,092 to Stengel and Design Pat. No. 27626222 to Eliot.
The art, however, does not include a full size, yet conveniently portable tennis scoring apparatus which has both the advantages of the articles of apparel and hand-held devices in terms of convenience and the visibility and professional appearance of the more traditional and typically fixed standard tennis scoring devices.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a fully visible and full size yet portable tennis scoring apparatus.
An additional object of this invention is to provide a tennis scoring apparatus which is easy to use and maintain the score of a tennis match.
A further object of this invention is to provide a tennis scoring apparatus which is easy to affix to a tennis netting post as with traditional tennis scoring devices or, alternatively, to affix to fences which often times surround tennis courts or to affix to the netting itself, positioned between the sideline boundary of the playing surface and the netting post.
It is another object of this invention to provide a full size tennis scoring device which is foldable about itself into a portable configuration.
A further object of this invention is to provide a device to measure the exact height of the net in the center of the court. It is also an object of this invention to provide a tennis scoring apparatus which has additional space for promotional and/or sponsorship and/or other information. These objects and advantages will be described below in greater detail.